Yeah he was killing it the first month or so when he got here. No ifs, ends, or buts.

Lately, though he just hasn't been the same and IMO its because other teams are used to his style of play and have adjusted to his game. Can he get better? Of course, and that is what the off-season is for, but I don't see it yet.

Only time will tell...

"I just put my faith in God. Through him we can do all things" - Kobe Bryant, March 24, 2004

I know there are lots of people down on Kendall Marshall now, but that should not detract from what he did this season. Since the 1998/99 season, we have been in the Kobe Era. Kobe has started nearly every game, has been the principal playmaker, and has dominated the assist game. So what Kendall Marshall has done should be understood in this way - he has had free reign where others have not (no Kobe this season).

Still, at 22 years of age, Marshall has 451 assists, third most in the Kobe Era (only Kobe has dished more). Marshall did it in only 52 games, too.

2112 total assists were allowed to our opponents (with only Philly giving up more 2144...the next worse teams were Cleveland and Detroit giving up 2037 and 2001 respectively).

That tells me our guard play on defense was utter ish! They're the ones that allowed opposing guard penetration...they're the ones that made our frontline vulnerable...they're the ones that had our frontline go help, only to have an easy drop off to the man they had to leave in order to prevent opposing guard penetration.

Marshall and all our guards for that matter had great assist stats....but that doesn't even begin to justify their defensive futility! They continually exposed our defense, which is why we were the 2nd worst (only ahead of Philly) in opposing offensive efficiency. Teams had their way with us offensively.

I don't really blame much of the defensive problems on Marshall. Watching him all season long I saw some good things defensively. Good enough. Give him a coach that actually teaches/knows anything about defense and he'd be good enough at this level.

Heck we won Championships with Fisher at PG. I'm not saying we can win Championships with Marshall leading THIS team, but he can certainly do fine.

therealdeal wrote:I don't really blame much of the defensive problems on Marshall. Watching him all season long I saw some good things defensively. Good enough. Give him a coach that actually teaches/knows anything about defense and he'd be good enough at this level.

Heck we won Championships with Fisher at PG. I'm not saying we can win Championships with Marshall leading THIS team, but he can certainly do fine.

To be fair, that's also when Kobe was quick enough to to guard most of the PG's that lit Fish up. Even before the injury Kobe's effort on D was completely gone. Otherwise it would work well.

therealdeal wrote:I don't really blame much of the defensive problems on Marshall. Watching him all season long I saw some good things defensively. Good enough. Give him a coach that actually teaches/knows anything about defense and he'd be good enough at this level.

Heck we won Championships with Fisher at PG. I'm not saying we can win Championships with Marshall leading THIS team, but he can certainly do fine.

To be fair, that's also when Kobe was quick enough to to guard most of the PG's that lit Fish up. Even before the injury Kobe's effort on D was completely gone. Otherwise it would work well.

I'm not trying to say we'd win Championships with just Kendall being Fisher, we'd obviously need a lot of different things before we got there. Just saying it's not impossible.

Mitch said only one or two things I liked today, that's it. I don't wanna hear 'Antoni did a good job, I don't wanna hear that Pau is a priority to re-sign, please be lying and move the F on (though of course these types of responses are expected as cards are never shown this early). What he said that I liked was trading our lottery pick was a "possibility", and this

@Lakers: Kupchak: "We have a young ball handling guard who's not quite 23 yet. We are optimistic on Kendall Marshall going forward."

IMO you'd be crazy to not pick up a 900k option on Marshall and continue to see where he can go from here.

Yeah, its early and as I said in another thread Mitch as said a ton of stuff in the past and then done something totally different despite how challenging it seems. However, after listening to his entire press conference today I believe that MDA will be back next year.

Granted this is just my opinion and its very early, but that's my feeling from today

"I just put my faith in God. Through him we can do all things" - Kobe Bryant, March 24, 2004

Marshall out-assisted his counterpart to the tune of 14.6 to 9.1 per 48 (at PG), 15.6 to 4.8 (at SG), and 8.6 to 0.0 (at SF). So let's just suppose that only the PG stats are accurate.

Test: Marshall played 1564 minutes. His 477 assists are indeed 14.6 per 48 minutes. So if his counterpart numbers are accurate, that's 297 assists in those minutes. So, Marshall handed out 23.8% of our assists. His counterpart handed out 14.1% of their assists. If points are points, good job Marshall.

Where are all the other assists coming from - clearly not all from Marshall's man. Other people who played PG, assists allowed per 48:Henry 11.7Meeks 10.8Nash 10.6Blake 10.3Marshall 9.1Bazemore 8.6Farmar 8.6Good job, Marshall.